Thursday, November 27, 2008

Fishing in Utah, and a Bald Eagle

I went fishing for the second time this year, which is kind of a record for me in Utah. My friend Travis invited me to go fishing with his family, but at the last minute it turned out they were going to a pretty far lake and I didn't want to go that far.

By then there was no way to back out. Rafael was already all excited about fishing. We went to a store, got some bait and drove to Deer creek, a lake in the beautiful Provo canyon that is stocked with fish by the Utah division of wildlife resources. Supposedly. I'm somewhat embarassed to say that in the two times I've been fishing this year I didn't catch anything.

Now I don't have a boat, and people tell me that my experience is a fluke. They say they always catch fish in Utah lakes, with the biggest prize being the famous rainbow trout. Now I come from the Amazon, where I would go fishing with my dad and friends, and we usually caught some tambaqui and tucunaré (like this one in the picture) fairly easily. Granted, we were on boats, away from the city, but still... fishing in Utah is more frustrating than I thought

Even so, we had a good time. It's fun to be alone with Rafael, no distractions and just talk whatever comes to mind. Do some manual labor for a change. The lake was calm, with a few people around fishing too. The lake area is truly nice and well-maintained. Rafael gets really worked up about casting his line, and I just keep hoping he won't get that hook onto something he shouldn't. He casts it pretty well, is remarkably patient for a kid his age and has fun when we're there.

The greatest thing about our last fishing excursion was that we got to see a real, wild American bald eagle. It was just a beautiful animal! I started taking pictures from far away, as I walked closer and closer to the eagle. It let us get as close as we could to it, keeping close tabs on us as we got closer. It would give me this piercing look, straight at my eyes it seemed at times. We spent a good half hour or more just looking at that eagle, marveling at its magnificence.